God's love for everything

Click here.

"Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." - John 6:12b

I read in a comment on YouTube that a guy actually believed that God did not want to save everyone. If you aren't familiar with this way of thinking, it's called Calvinism, the belief that God created some people to be saved and some people to go to hell for no apparent reason other than He wanted to.

It's a bastardization of scripture and of Christianity, not apparent in any historic teachings outside of Western Europe and America, which means that the vast majority of the Christian world thinks it's utter nonsense. And they should.

Read the words of Christ after feeding the five thousand. See how he tells them to gather the remaining fish and bread so that nothing is lost. So God cares that bread and fish are not lost but not people? It is utter foolishness.

Let us remember the words of God, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live (Ezekiel 18:23)?"

Is the suicide of Judas pleasing in the sight of Christ? No, it is a tragedy. It is the loss of an image of God.

...the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against love is more poignant than any torment. It would be improper for a man to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God. Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all. The power of love works in two ways. It torments sinners, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend. But it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties. Thus I say that this is the torment of Gehenna: bitter regret. - St. Isaac the Syrian, “Homily 72: On the Vision of the Nature of Incorporeal Beings, in Questions and Answers,” Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian

Beloved, the love of God reaches out to all, regardless of how far they have strayed. Let us learn from the example of Christ then and care for our souls and our brothers in prayer and deed, that "nothing is lost."